


A New Upgrade

by Earthshine



Category: Tetsuwan Atom | Astro Boy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-20 17:45:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1519619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Earthshine/pseuds/Earthshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Atom requests to have an honest conversation with his three best friends about his place in the world and what he needs to do in order to serve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Upgrade

**Author's Note:**

> I am using a mix of names from the English dub and the original Japanese dub for this story as I just like some names better in a specific version. Shibugaki, Tamao and Kennichi as such are Abercrombie, Alejo and Kennedy while Astro is Atom, Zoran is Uran and Oshay is Ochanomizu. 
> 
> This fic also takes place a few years after the end of the 2003 anime, Atom's three friends are 17 - 18 in age. 
> 
> This is also the first story that I have written in about two years, please be honest with me in how I did as I am really rusty.

The sun was blindingly bright as it hovered benevolently above Metro City, for sun worshipers it was a glorious day to be experienced outside in rays of light and heat, but for others it was a day to stay shielded and protected from the star's wrath. However there were those from both preferences who had no choice in the matter and had to remain outside together in that dry gleaming city-air. 

Three teenaged friends walked down Sagan Ave, backpacks slung over their shoulders and faces glaring downwards facing the white pavement. Had the day not been so bright they would have been facing each other as they boisterously joked among themselves, but not today. Instead they strutted speedily down the finely manicured street dotted with almost picture-perfect homes, not one piece of litter interrupted their stride. 

Finally they came to a stop in front of an odd-shaped house that at first glance looked like something designed in the 1950s but on closer inspection was much more than that. Every design of the odd house was for a purpose, and more houses were being built on that design every year. It was not the oddity of that house that drew the three teenagers to the front door but who was inside. Standing on the front porch the tallest of them, a blond slightly rotund boy named Abercrombie pressed the doorbell. None of them were smiling under that heat but when the door slid open every one of them smiled widely. 

A small girl wearing mostly pink was the one who answered the bell and she was all smiles. “Brother will be up in a minute, he's working with Reno on a project!” she said buoyantly as she led them into the air conditioned home. The three friends sighed almost in unison once they were inside. Chucking their shoes and backpacks they made their way to the couch and sat down, though Abercrombie melted down into the fathoms of gel infused memory foam and almost nodded off. 

The small girl grinned at him and thought about playfully pulling off one of his socks but decided against it, the last time she had anything to do with his feet ended in disaster and a bath. Instead she let the boy be and ran off into the kitchen blurting out an “I'll get you guys some lemonade!” before any one of them could respond to her properly. 

“Thanks Uran” said the dark-skinned friend named Kennedy as he stretched out on the couch and crossed his legs lazily. “That would be great. I love the heat and all but this is ridiculous.” 

A boy with glasses chuckled as he looked up from his phone, “It's a proven fact, climate change is still happening despite our efforts to curb pollution.” Abercrombie snorted awake. 

“Whawasthat? Alejo?” he grumbled before rubbing his face, waking up. “Man I do -not- want to get into any more conversations about climate change, that's all my chemistry teacher talked about today.”

Alejo put his phone away. “Mr. Wenzel?” he asked with a sympathetic look on his face and the blonde nodded. 

“Mr. Fire-and-Brimstone-Wenzel,” Abercrombie added. “I'm not sure which is worse, watching Fox News or being lectured in his class, at least Wenzel has his facts right.” 

“Hey at least Wenzel recognizes the importance of robots in our economy and society unlike Mrs. Grave!” said Kennedy and his two friends groaned in agreement remembering the woman's unpleasantness during her classes. 

“Well her name is Grave!” chirped Uran as she walked carefully into the living area with a tray in tow, three glasses balanced carefully filled in equal amounts of tangy sweet lemonade, she even added to each glass a fun wildly bent straw. Uran placed the tray on the coffee table in front of them proud that she did not spill any this time and she was being a good host. 

“Good point there, Uran,” said Kennedy as he grabbed a glass with his other friends, the lemonade was sweet but not too sweet and was ice cold. As the liquid ran down his throat he could feel with his tongue fresh fruit pulp and was surprised, it was not often that people had fresh squeezed lemonade anymore. 

Alejo made an odd face when he realized that there was pulp in the juice but was wise to not say anything and sipped at the juice quietly. “When was Atom going to meet us?” he asked Atom's sister and she shrugged. 

“He just said he was talking with Reno down in the basement lab and he would be up shortly.” 

Ambercrombie sighed. “Then we're probably not going to see him for an hour considering how much Reno will chat him up, especially if it's a project.” 

“That's not that long 'Crom,” Kennedy said as he dug into his backpack and pulled out a tablet. “Gives me time to do my homework,” the blond almost scoffed. 

“Only you would think to do homework at a friend's house.”

“I'd love to have some homework, I miss that.” said a youthful voice from behind the teens and each one knew exactly who it was. 

“Must have been some project to make you late to your own meeting, what's up?” said Alejo as he placed his juice down. Atom gave them all a friendly grin before he moved to the front of them and sat down in a burgundy recliner, it was Dr. Ochanomizu's personal chair but for now it was vacant. 

“Actually I was talking with Reno about why I wanted to talk with you three, I was talking about going back to school,” the brunette robot said in a tone that was not common for him. He was dead serious but the last part of his sentence was laced with sadness. The looks on his friends' faces also reflected that sadness. 

Kennedy was the first to react with a joyous smile. “That's great! But how are you going to do it? You know the robot laws are still kind of shaky, they don't want robots in human public schools unless it's college, and even then people are still weirded out by the idea.” 

All four of them remembered the incident 6 years prior when on the first day of middle school Atom was abruptly taken out of their homeroom which they were so lucky to get together and told privately that robots were no longer allowed in the public school system, even if he was Atom. It had been explained that specialists were worried about human performance stress when competing against robots, and until further data was gathered the school systems had to abide by 'better safe than sorry'. Atom was crushed with the news, but his friends were devastated. In an attempt to invoke dramatic change Kennedy lead a full assault on the school forming a protest which was quickly shut down by both Atom and school officials. Atom was not happy with the decision but also did not want to cause trouble, especially if it was true that he could inadvertently intimidate a child into failing, even if it was just one.

Although years ago sentient robots were granted civilian status as persons in most developed nations, laws and regulations still had to follow and there were a lot of 'gray' areas that needed to be addressed. A whole new demographic had to be accounted for and fairly from all angles. It was not something that could just be eased into quickly but rather it was a process still in the works. 

“I know, I remember,” Atom said as he leaned into his knees as he recalled the event, resting his elbows there. “I'm not talking about high school, besides you guys are almost done with that. I'm talking about enrolling in college.” 

Atom's friend's were quiet for a moment before Alejo scratched the back of his shaved head. “You sure about that? I mean we're all glad to hear that you want to go back to school but aren't you worried about being discriminated against? It's still pretty rough right now for scholar robots,” he said and the two other human boys nodded in agreement. 

“We're not sure how safe it's going to be until all these rules and regulations are set finally, which could take another five years at least!” Kennedy added. 

The small robot sat back upright. “I'm sure about this. The rules clearly state that robots are not allowed in integrated school systems below college level, but they can enroll freely in college courses. This is something I want and I am not afraid of KR or anyone that might try to convince me otherwise,” Atom stated defiantly and surely, it was in that moment that his friends saw not a ten year old boy but someone who was their age. A young man of close to eighteen or even twenty. 

“What about your appearance?” Abercrombie asked, “I remember the last time we talked about this you said you didn't even want to go to high school because you didn't want to be treated like a little kid anymore.”

Atom nodded sagely. “That's a good point, and that brings me to the second reason why I wanted to talk with you. The fact is is that I am discussing a potential body upgrade with both Reno and Dr. Ochanomizu.” 

His friends went deathly silent then before Alejo grinned a big grin and almost whooped in excitement, Kennedy meanwhile looked slightly taken aback. “But I thought you said that you wanted to be just the way you were, forever. I mean I'm glad that you want an upgrade, but only if it's something that you really want and not something that you only feel like you want, you know?” 

The friends were quiet for a moment and the three humans gazed upon Atom curiously. None of them had forgotten the incident with the old man trying to prevent children from aging for all eternity, forever innocent and forever free from responsibility. Atom had to save those abducted children then, and at the end of it all was left wondering if he was going to be abandoned by his aging friends eventually because of his inability to naturally age. Atom was reassured by everyone that no matter what they would remain as friends, something that had been proven to be unshakably true all throughout the years. 

“I am happy with my body,” Atom started. “However if I am going to help people in the future it's in my best interest to get this upgrade. I know that you three and so many others know that I am not a child anymore, that I have grown, but there are others that refuse to see past my appearance. My appearance may give some people comfort but I'm not willing to risk life for it,” the small young man finished soberly. 

“What happened?” asked Kennedy as he started to piece together what was going on in his friend's head. “You wouldn't say something like that unless something happened.” Atom was quiet for a moment as he debated internally whether he should tell them or not, but finally came to the decision that it was best if they knew exactly what was going on with his desire to upgrade. 

“Do you three remember the Perdue Murders of last summer?” asked Atom and his friends all nodded, some with sickened expressions. “Tawashi was getting desperate to solve them and the entire area was in a panic just to just find who was at fault so that no one else would die like that. Tawashi called me in to work the case but the case got switched over to the federal level, the FBI took over the case and he had no power in what was going on. He had originally mapped out a course of action that would help us trick the persons behind the murders, his plan called for me to go incognito along with an undercover agent as bait. It was a tricky scenario but we were grasping at straws.” 

“So what happened?” Abercrombie inquired. 

“Like I said, the FBI took over the investigation and relieved Tawashi of any involvement on the case, when he offered to show the plan to the detectives that took over the investigation they agreed that the plan might work, but not with me,” Atom paused then as he recalled that night, isolated in Tawashi's office with two strangers leering over him with doubt on their faces. 

“They stated that I was too young for such a grim job and they would attempt it with one of Delta's squad. I was relieved of duty and ordered to not interfere under threat of imprisonment.” 

“That's total bullshit!” Kennedy snapped in a rare instance of vulgarity. “You're not a kid, you've probably seen more action than they ever will in their lives! I mean, sure you haven't seen guts and bloody messes like them, but you get it!” The other two friends agreed vehemently to Kennedy's riled outburst. 

The raven haired robot inhaled deeply. “The undercover agent was brutally injured and the Delta Squad investigator was killed the second night of their baiting, they didn't know that the perpetrator was armed with a taser that could decommission police robots. My own system could handle it though if I was only allowed to be there. After that night the suspect went on to kill 15 more people before they gave in and let me on the investigation,” Atom finished and it was obvious that the memory was something that tasked his mind greatly. 

“I should have just disobeyed those orders and went on the patrol without them knowing, because of my appearance more people died, if I only looked older then those agents would have been comfortable sending me in,” the robot added sullenly and his three companions sat in silence for a moment before Alejo shook his head. 

“No if you disobeyed them you would have been imprisoned and more people would have died as a result of you not being there. I know what robot jail is all about, it's not fun and they keep you there for longer than a human would be too, equality my foot.” 

Abercrombie nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you can't blame yourself for following the rules.” 

Atom smiled. “Thanks guys, Ochanomizu said the exact same thing.” 

“I understand why you want an upgraded body now,” Kennedy said. “It's completely justifiable when you have that riding around in your head.” Atom bowed slightly towards his friends and gave a genuine smile. 

“Thanks, I wanted you three to be the first to know outside of family.” 

“How are you going to do it? Your systems are so specialized, isn't it going to be hard to make a new body for you?” inquired Alejo as he finished off the glass of lemonade. 

“Had this been 7 years ago it would have been hard without Dr. Tenma but Ochanomizu with Reno have gotten very skilled at repairing this piece of junk,” he joked as he gently rapped his chest with a fist. “I will be sacrificing power in proportion to my body, but I will still have the same powers and skills as I do now. That's something that is not going to be sacrificed,” explained Atom feeling more comfortable with the subject. 

“Will you still be able to fly into space?” asked Abercrombie.

“Of course!” Atom replied. 

“Will you still be able to fly at the speed of sound?” added Alejo. 

“Yup.” 

“Will you still have guns in your butt?” Kennedy asked with a candid smile and that's when they all lost it in a fit of giggles. 

It took Atom a moment or two to respond to the question without being interrupted with laughter. In the end Atom just left it with one word, “Debatable.” 

The giggles started up again.


End file.
